SMU schedules home-and-home basketball series with Dayton

Dayton finished the 2019-20 season ranked No. 3 in the AP poll.

FILE - SMU head coach Tim Jankovich calls out a play as point guard Kendric Davis (3) waits for the offense to set during the first half of a game against Wichita State on Sunday, March 1, 2020, at Moody Coliseum in University Park.(Ryan Michalesko / Staff Photographer)

SMU and Dayton are scheduling a home-and-home basketball series for the next two years, the schools announced Friday.

Dayton will host the game during the 2020-21 season. SMU will host the game the following season.

“We are very excited that Dayton has agreed to a home-and-home series,” SMU head coach Tim Jankovich said in a release. “They were a serious contender for the national championship this past year before the season was cut short.”

The Flyers went 29-2 last season, including 18-0 in the Atlantic 10 Conference, on their way to a No. 3 ranking in the final AP Top 25 poll. The Mustangs finished 19-11 overall with a 9-9 record in American Athletic Conference play.

The next meeting will be the fourth game all-time between the schools, with SMU having won two of the three previous matchups.

Dayton and SMU played a home-and-home series in 2006-07 and 2007-08 that started in Dallas, and the host won each contest. Before that, SMU beat Dayton at the Kentucky Invitational that was played in Lexington during the 1956-57 season.

Sam Blum, Staff Writer. Sam covers SMU athletics and the Texas Rangers for The Dallas Morning News, and previously covered Auburn University athletics for AL.com. He's also covered University of Virginia athletics for The Daily Progress in Charlottesville. He graduated from Syracuse University.